Understanding how to build new habits (and how your current ones
work) is essential for making progress in your health, your
happiness, and your life in general.

But there can be a lot of information out there and most of it
isn’t very simple to digest. To solve this problem and break
things down in a very simple manner, I have created this strategy
guide for building new habits that actually stick.

Even more detailed information is available in my Habits Workshop
and in my free guide, Transform Your Habits. But the basic
principles mentioned in this article will be more than enough to
get you going.

When most people struggle to stick with a new habit, they say
something like, “I just need more motivation.” Or, “I wish I had
as much willpower as you do.”

This is the wrong approach. Research shows that willpower is like
a muscle. It gets fatigued as you use it throughout the day.
Another way to think of this is that your motivation ebbs and
flows. It rises and falls. Stanford professor BJ Fogg calls this
the “ motivation wave.”

Solve this problem by picking a new habit that is easy enough
that you don’t need motivation to do it. Rather than starting
with 50 pushups per day, start with 5 pushups per day. Rather
than trying to meditate for 10 minutes per day, start by
meditating for one minute per day. Make it easy enough that you
can get it done without motivation.

Success is a few simple disciplines, practiced every day; while
failure is simply a few errors in judgment, repeated every day.

One percent improvements add up surprisingly fast. So do one
percent declines.

Rather than trying to do something amazing from the beginning,
start small and gradually improve. Along the way, your willpower
and motivation will increase, which will make it easier to stick
to your habit for good.

If you continue adding one percent each day, then you’ll find
yourself increasing very quickly within two or three months. It
is important to keep each habit reasonable, so that you can
maintain momentum and make the behavior as easy as possible to
accomplish.

Building up to 20 minutes of meditation? Split it into two
segments of 10 minutes at first.

Trying to do 50 pushups per day? Five sets of 10 might be much
easier as you make your way there.

You shouldn’t expect to fail, but you should plan for failure.
Take some time to consider what will prevent your habit from
happening. What are some things that are likely to get in your
way? What are some daily emergencies that are likely to pull you
off course? How can you plan to work around these issues? Or, at
least, how you can bounce back quickly from them and get back on
track?

You just need to be consistent, not perfect. Focus on building
the identity of someone who never misses a habit twice.

Learning to be patient is perhaps the most critical skill of all.
You can make incredible progress if you are consistent and
patient.

If you are adding weight in the gym, you should probably go
slower than you think. If you are adding daily sales calls to
your business strategy, you should probably start with fewer than
you expect to handle. Patience is everything. Do things you can
sustain.

New habits should feel easy, especially in the beginning. If you
stay consistent and continue increasing your habit it will get
hard enough, fast enough. It always does.